BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Broome County hotels posted an average occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) of 49.6 percent in September, the highest mark since the COVID-19 pandemic started. In comparison, the county’s occupancy rate was 46.2 percent in August, 38.1 percent in July, 34.1 percent in June, and 27.3 percent in […]
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Broome County hotels posted an average occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) of 49.6 percent in September, the highest mark since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
In comparison, the county’s occupancy rate was 46.2 percent in August, 38.1 percent in July, 34.1 percent in June, and 27.3 percent in May, according to STR, a Tennessee–based hotel market data and analytics company. Still, September’s occupancy rate was down nearly 17 percent from a year ago. Also, it’s likely hotels will take a significant business hit in October as a surge in coronavirus cases has led to stay-at-home recommendations and parts of the county being declared a “Yellow Zone” by the state, which placed restrictions on gatherings, events, and restaurants.
Broome County’s revenue per available room (RevPar), a key industry gauge that measures how much money hotels are bringing in per available room, improved to $38.87 in September from $37.36 in August, $28.97 in July, and $24.93 in June. However, RevPar was down more than 31 percent from a year earlier.
In its manufacturing heyday in the early 20th century, Syracuse certainly deserved the moniker, Gear City. At that time, Syracuse ompanies such as New Process Gear, Brown-Lipe Gear, Brown-Lipe-Chapin, Durston Gear, Diefendorf Gear, and Nixon Gear, fabricated 25 million gears annually, made $50 million, and employed thousands of local citizens. The breadth of finished products that
In its manufacturing heyday in the early 20th century, Syracuse certainly deserved the moniker, Gear City. At that time, Syracuse
ompanies such as New Process Gear, Brown-Lipe Gear, Brown-Lipe-Chapin, Durston Gear, Diefendorf Gear, and Nixon Gear, fabricated 25 million gears annually, made $50 million, and employed thousands of local citizens.
The breadth of finished products that utilized locally made gears was incredibly diverse: bicycles, automobiles, trucks, printing presses, sewing machines, portable and industrial tools. Gear companies located in Syracuse reputedly made about 90 percent of the automotive gears used in the U.S.
This article offers brief synopses of some of the more notable gear manufacturers in Syracuse, culminating with Nixon Gear, which is celebrating its centennial year in 2020.
New Process Raw Hide Company, New Process Gear Corporation, New Venture Gear, Inc.
Thomas W. Meachem organized the New Process Raw Hide Company on June 25, 1888 in Baldwinsville, with $30,000 in capital. The company first made leather-covered boats and canoes, utilizing its patented new leather tanning process. By the following year, New Process had expanded its product lines to include solid, noiseless rawhide gears used on high-speed machinery and electric railway cars.
By the early 20th century, New Process Raw Hide complemented its rawhide gears with those made from hardened steel, brass, and cast iron. In 1912, the company introduced the first bevel gear and officially renamed the business New Process Gear Corporation.
Thomas Meachem retired as president in November 1918 and sold the company to auto maker John Willys, president of the Willys-Overland Company. Meachem and his sons, Thomas G. and Joseph F.S., then formed the Meachem Gear Company in 1919. The two sons operated the new company until November 1924, when they suddenly announced without explanation that they were closing the business.
Willys-Overland sold New Process Gear to General Motors in 1921. General Motors then sold the company to Chrysler in 1934, later becoming a Chrysler subsidiary in the 1950s.
N
ew Process Gear made four-wheel drive systems and transmissions for trucks, tractors, and military equipment. During World War II, New Process Gear employed 1,700 workers, earned $10.75 million in gross sales, and had a payroll of $80,000 each week. By the 1970s, New Process Gear led the world in making a two-speed transfer case for heavy-duty vehicles.
In 1990, New Process Gear celebrated its 102nd anniversary and was reorganized as New Venture Gear, the first joint venture between Chrysler and General Motors. In February 2002, General Motors sold its company share to DaimlerChrysler. In 2003, New Venture Gear had $1.5 billion in sales, 4,000 employees, and a $5 million-a-week local payroll. DaimlerChrysler sold 80 percent of its share of New Venture Gear to Magna International in September 2004. However, by 2007, New Venture Gear was having trouble winning new manufacturing contracts and was losing a great deal of money. In August 2012, the plant stopped production and closed its doors after 124 years.
Brown-Lipe Gear Company
Two inventors and entrepreneurs, Alexander T. Brown and Charles E. Lipe, formed a business partnership in Syracuse in 1895. Brown, an amazing inventor and engineer, is credited with about 300 inventions.
Charles E. Lipe, a mechanical engineer, opened the C.E. Lipe Machine Shop on South Geddes Street in 1880. At the Lipe Shop, Lipe worked on his own projects while renting space to other budding inventors and entrepreneurs. The shop became an incubator for new inventions and was known as Syracuse’s cradle of industries. The Syracuse Journal newspaper credited these men with sowing “the germs that sprouted into major business enterprises in Syracuse and elsewhere.”
Together, Brown and Lipe invented and patented the Hy-Lo Bi-Gear for bicycles in 1894, and a year later formed the Brown-Lipe Gear Company. Their gear wasn’t well-liked by bicycle makers but soon became popular with automobile manufacturers. In 1895, Charles Lipe died and his brother Willard replaced him, and the company began making three-speed transmissions for Franklin, Ford, and the Yellow Cab Company.
The company’s business continued to grow, and in 1907, Brown-Lipe Gear Company built a new five-story factory at the corner of West Fayette and South Geddes Streets at a cost of about $100,000.
By 1908, Brown-Lipe Gear Company was working to capacity and could have easily employed 1,000 workers to make vehicle-steering gears and differentials but did not have the space or the equipment to take advantage of the sizeable increase in orders.
On Dec. 12, 1928, William Schall & Company bought the Brown-Lipe Gear Company for $3.4 million. At the time, Brown-Lipe Gear was recognized as the largest independent manufacturer of transmission gears, clutches, and controls for trucks, taxicabs, and buses in the nation. The magnitude of the local gear business caused the Syracuse Journal newspaper to credit the Brown-Lipe Gear Company with bestowing upon Syracuse the appellation, Gear City.
William Schall & Company then sold the Brown-Lipe Gear Company to the Spicer Manufacturing Company of Toledo, Ohio, in 1928, which by April 1931, had moved Brown-Lipe Gear’s operation to that city, leaving a huge complex of empty buildings along West Fayette and South Geddes Streets.
Today, Cosmo Fanizzi and Rick Destito own two former Brown-Lipe Gear Company buildings on West Fayette and South Geddes Streets. Destito subsequently renamed his building the Gear Factory.
Bown-Lipe-Chapin Company
In 1910, Charles Mott of General Motors asked if Brown-Lipe Gear Company could make a new bevel gear differential. Making the new differential required more capital and manufacturing space than Brown-Lipe Gear Company could accommodate, so in 1910, Brown, Lipe, and H. Winfield Chapin formed another company — Brown-Lipe-Chapin — to make the bevel differential, along with transmission gears and clutches. The new company constructed a five-story building between West Fayette, Marcellus, and Seneca Streets, one of the largest factories built in Syracuse at that time.
During World War I, the federal government awarded Brown-Lipe-Chapin a $1.5 million contract to produce rear axle differentials for 17,000 military vehicles.
In January 1923, Brown-Lipe-Chapin formally affiliated itself with General Motors and became one of GM’s divisions.
As production waned between 1930 and 1933, General Motors closed the plant and converted it into an industrial center housing several small businesses. This venture lasted three years until GM resumed production of automobile parts at the factory site in February 1936.
That same year, Brown-Lipe-Chapin became affiliated with the Guide Lamp Division of General Motors and switched from making transmission gears and clutches to making flashier chrome parts: headlamps, tail lamps, hub caps, and bumper guards. The product line soon grew to include steering gears and automobile emblems.
In 1951, Brown-Lipe-Chapin began making parts for the Curtis-Wright J-65 Sapphire jet engine. The following year, Brown-Lipe-Chapin built a new plant in DeWitt to build the jet engine.
In December 1961, General Motors consolidated Brown-Lipe-Chapin into the Ternstedt Division. The Ternstedt Division then merged with the Fisher Body Division in November 1968.
For the next 25 years — 1968 to 1993 — employees at the Fisher Body plant in Syracuse continued to make automotive body parts for GM vehicles. In October 1993, GM closed the plant, known by then as the Fisher Inland Guide Plant, due to major corporate restructuring.
Durston Gear Corporation
Daniel M. Lefever established the Lefever Arms Company in Syracuse in 1884 to make breech-loading shotguns and rifles. About 1902, Lefever left the company to set up a new firearms company. James F. Durston, president of Lefever, had endeavored to make transmissions and jackshafts for motor wagons by 1912. Demand for Lefever Arms’ auto gears had amply increased in 1915, and it did not take long for the company to focus more on making auto gears than firearms.
Therefore, in June 1916, Lefever Arms Company sold its firearm business and formed Durston Gear Corporation. Immediately, James Durston added onto the Maltbie Street building to accommodate 500 employees.
During WW I, the U.S. government awarded a large contract to Durston Gear Corp. to make transmissions for U.S. Army trucks, one of only two companies in the entire country to be awarded the contract. By this time, James Durston relinquished the presidency to his older son, Alfred. When James died in 1921, and Alfred died in 1926, James’ younger son, Marshall, became company president, holding the position until Durston Gear Corp. closed its doors in 1945.
Diefendorf Gear Corporation
Willis H. Diefendorf was the chief engineer at the New Process Gear Company until he founded Diefendorf Gear Corporation in 1920 for the purpose of making a variety of specialized non-automotive, industrial metallic and non-metallic gears. In 1923, Diefendorf moved his company to 920 West Belden Avenue.
Willis Diefendorf died on May 25, 1929 at age 59. His widow, Mary, then succeeded her husband as company president and treasurer. Mrs. Diefendorf was one of only a few women business executives at the time and she successfully managed the company until her own death in January 1941. Mrs. Diefendorf’s son, Donald, then managed his parents’ gear business into the 1970s.
Diefendorf Gear Corp. made gears for machine tools, portable electric and pneumatic tools, packaging machinery, dairy-handling equipment, conveyors, and sewing machines. Employees made spur and spiral bevel gears out of rawhide, iron, steel, and bronze in sizes from less than one inch up to six feet in diameter, with some gears weighing 3,000 lbs.
Diefendorf Gear Corp. operated until the early 2000s when it closed due to stiff overseas competition.
Nixon Gear
The auto industry’s success in the early 20th century had already prompted several gear companies to open in Syracuse by 1920, and it was this burgeoning manufacturing environment that prompted George C. Nixon to join the ever-expanding local gear manufacturing scene. On Nov. 17, 1920, George Nixon founded Nixon Broach and Tool Company at 200 Oxford St. to sell general machining and special tooling.
George Coleman Nixon was born in Marengo County, Alabama in 1882. On June 9, 1909, Nixon married Kate Estelle Shakaw in Alabama. By 1916, George and Kate had moved to Detroit, Michigan where George established the Steel Treating Equipment Company with $10,000 in capital stock. This company specialized in manufacturing carbonizing compound and milled charcoal.
George and Kate Nixon migrated to Syracuse to establish Nixon Broach and Tool Company while he was still president of the Detroit company. By March 1921, Nixon was advertising that his shop could grind auto cylinders, then fit them with new pistons and rings. He guaranteed his work and provided quick service.
In 1924, Nixon began to manufacture gears and changed the business’ name to Nixon Gear and Machine Company. Nixon continued to advertise for experienced toolmakers and machinists in the classified section of the local newspapers throughout the 1920s. The management team operating Nixon Gear and Machine included George as president, Kate as secretary and treasurer, and George’s brother-in-law, John E. Shahan as VP. Shahan, also born in Alabama, had moved to Syracuse in 1924 to assist the Nixons with operating the company. In 1930, their positions altered with Shahan becoming company president, Kate becoming VP, and George becoming secretary and treasurer. George and Kate then moved back to Detroit in 1932. Shahan stayed in Syracuse and served as company president for many more years.
George continued managing the Steel Treating Equipment Company in Detroit, and from there, George and Kate Nixon continued their association with Nixon Gear and Machine Company as secretary and treasurer and VP, respectively, until 1941.
In the mid-1950s, Nixon Gear and Machine Company placed an ad in the Syracuse Herald-Journal newspaper touting its growth and success and allying itself with the progress achieved by Central New York. The company expanded and purchased more equipment to meet the demand for its products and services: thread milling, worm wheels, and helical, worm, bevel, and spur gears. The ad also described Nixon Gear and Machine Company as the exclusive Central New York distributor for diamond roller chain and sprockets, as well as asserting that the company was in the “enviable position of being able to fulfill the requirements of any gearing problem regardless of complexity or size of order.” In 1955, the company offered “precision flame hardening of all types of gears.”
On Jan. 1, 1956, company president, John E. Shahan, Sr., announced that he thought Nixon Gear and Machine Company would have its best production and sales year in the company’s history. By adding new machinery and enlarging its sales territory to a national extent, Shahan, Sr. predicted that the company would continue to expand and serve its increasing number of customers. At this time, Nixon Gear also made “fine pitch precision gears used on precision measuring and computing equipment for the army.”
George C. Nixon remained in Detroit until his death on Sept. 13, 1957 at age 75. His brief obituary in the Detroit Free Press newspaper lacked recognition of all that Nixon had achieved, including owning two successful businesses. By the time of George’s death, the Shahan family managed Nixon Gear and Machine Company. John E. Shahan, Sr. continued as president, John Sr.’s two sons, John E., Jr. and Robert were dual VPs, and John Sr.’s wife, Justina, was treasurer.
Nixon Gear and Machine Company applied to the Bureau of Building and Rehabilitation to construct a new facility at 185 Ainsley Drive in Syracuse in 1958. The application stated the building would measure 175-by-101 feet and cost $150,000 to build. The company moved to this address sometime in 1959.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, along with donating money to the local community chest, Nixon Gear and Machine Company employees faithfully donated many pints of blood to the American Red Cross. Numerous newspaper articles recognized the employees’ generous donations of the much-needed lifesaver. The company also participated in job-training programs for unemployed or underemployed local citizens via grant money provided by the federal government, as well as career opportunity fairs aimed at providing employment for those interested in working in an industrial facility.
John E. Shahan, Sr. died in January 1967 at age 73. John E., Sr.’s sons, Robert and John E., Jr., succeeded their father as company president and VP, respectively.
The following January, Nixon Gear and Machine Company was at the center of a proposed industrial complex to be created on Onondaga Hill in the Town of Onondaga. The proposal included Nixon Gear constructing a new $1 million, 60,000-square-foot plant on 80 acres that would accommodate 200 employees. At the time, the facility on Ainsley Drive comprised 21,000 square feet and accommodated 120 employees. The Town of Onondaga, which very much wanted to increase its commercial tax revenue, rezoned the property, and formally approved the plan on March 21, 1968. Construction on the new plant began in May and it opened at 4601 Nixon Park Drive in 1969.
In the late 1960s, a major product shift occurred in the business-machine segment of the gear manufacturing market with powdered metal and plastic gears replacing steel spur and helical gears. By the early 1970s, plastic parts and electronic components were quickly replacing metal gears. These changes forced the company to change its focus and develop new product and sales markets.
After about 20 years of being associated with Nixon Gear and Machine Company, Robert Shahan retired from his position as president in 1976; John Shahan, Jr. stayed with the company. Also that year, Nixon Gear and Machine Company became Nixon Gear, Inc.
Evidently, Nixon Gear, Inc.’s business faltered and the company declared bankruptcy sometime in 1976. In March 1977, Gear Motions, Inc. of Massachusetts purchased Nixon Gear. Through this acquisition, Gear Motions added precision- ground gearing to its product network and substantially enlarged its sales territory into the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. By January 1978, John Shahan, Jr. predicted a 15 percent increase in sales volume for that year. In a Syracuse Herald- American article from January 1978, David Edmonds, assistant to John Shahan, Jr. was quoted as saying, “Nixon’s long standing reputation for supplying quality gear products in the precision and commercial gear classes has enticed local and national accounts to place their critical needs at Nixon’s modern Onondaga Hill facility.”
By February 1979, Samuel Haines, president of Gear Motions, declared that the company had surpassed its prediction of a 15-percent sales-volume increase by realizing a 40-percent increase.
Throughout the 1980s, Nixon Gear continued to thrive under the leadership of Gear Motions.
After being associated with Gear Motions for 15 years, Nixon Gear moved from its building in the Town of Onondaga to a new state-of-the-art, climate-controlled building located at 1750 Milton Avenue in Solvay in 1992. The 45,000-square-foot structure allowed the company to improve its operations and efficiency while allowing for additional investment in precision gear grinding. It became one of the first ISO 9002-registered gear manufacturers in 1996.
In the 21st century, Nixon Gear, remains a division of Gear Motions, at 1750 Milton Avenue. Employees make high-speed precision gears for commercial and industrial applications. Through the last 100 years, Nixon Gear has remained successful by continuing to grow and adapt during changing times. Today, the company continues to invest in the future, by adding industry-leading robotic automation and super grinding equipment that it purchased in early 2020.
Congratulations to Nixon Gear and Gear Motions for sustaining the 100-year-old gear-manufacturing company in Onondaga County. Celebrating Nixon Gear’s centennial in 2020 also is a celebration of Syracuse and Onondaga County’s long and diverse history of gear manufacturing that has lasted since the 19th century.
Thomas Hunter is the curator of collections at the OHA (www.cnyhistory.org), located at 321 Montgomery St. in Syracuse.
SYRACUSE — A pandemic-related equipment delay has pushed back the upcoming opening of the Salt City Market, which remains under construction at 484 S. Salina St. in downtown Syracuse. A factory in Texas, which is assembling the equipment, has been operating at 50 percent capacity, which resulted in the delay, Maarten Jacobs, the project’s executive
SYRACUSE — A pandemic-related equipment delay has pushed back the upcoming opening of the Salt City Market, which remains under construction at 484 S. Salina St. in downtown Syracuse.
A factory in Texas, which is assembling the equipment, has been operating at 50 percent capacity, which resulted in the delay, Maarten Jacobs, the project’s executive director, tells CNYBJ in an Oct. 27 email.
“As a result, we are about six weeks behind,” he adds.
Jacobs also serves as director of community prosperity with the Allyn Family Foundation, which has offices in Syracuse and Skaneateles.
Construction effort
The Salt City Market — a $24 million mixed-use project — is a design-build project by Syracuse–based VIP Structures, says Jacobs.
Subcontractors on the project include Raulli & Sons, Inc., which is handling the steel work, and Century Heating & Air Conditioning Inc., which is doing the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning work on the project.
They also include Paragon Environmental Construction of Brewerton, which is handling the sitework and concrete elements; Phoenix Electric of CNY Inc., which is doing the electrical work; and BR Johnson Inc. of DeWitt, which is responsible for the doors on the project, according to Jacobs.
The Salt City Market construction effort continued throughout the state’s pandemic restrictions this past spring. The project qualified as an essential construction project because it includes affordable housing, according to Jacobs.
VIP Structures also partnered with Environmental Design & Research, Landscape Architecture, Engineering, & Environmental Services, D.P.C. of Syracuse, along with New York City–based iCRAVE and Minneapolis, Minnesota–based Snow Kreilich to design the interior food hall and the exterior shell, respectively.
The Allyn Family Foundation is financing the effort, using a line of credit against the foundation’s endowment, according to Jacobs. Once the project is complete, the foundation will shift to permanent financing, he adds.
“We created a separate nonprofit called the Syracuse Urban Partnership to do the project and manage it and to own the building,” says Jacobs.
About the project
The two anchor tenants in the 78,000-square-foot, four-story building are the Syracuse Cooperative Market and Salt City Coffee. Other tenants include food entrepreneurs like SOULutions Sley’s Southern Cuisine, Big in Burma, Firecracker Thai Kitchen, Pie’s The Limit, Cake Bar, Erma’s Island providing “Jamaican dining at its best,” Mamma Hai, and Miss Prissy’s, per the market’s website.
In addition, the tenants include Baghdad, a Middle Eastern restaurant, and Farm Girl / Catalpa Flowers, a micro stall serving cold-pressed juices and smoothies and selling flower bouquets.
In addition to the food merchants, the first floor of the Salt City Market will include a 2,100-square-foot grocery store, as well as a coffee shop that transitions to a bar in the afternoon/evenings.
The Allyn Family Foundation wanted to take an “underutilized or blighted” corner of the downtown area and “revitalize it,” says Jacobs.
The organization saw progress happening in downtown and wanted to be a “connector” between the revitalization of downtown and some of the neighborhoods that “could be poised for revitalization but haven’t been to date,” referencing some neighborhoods along South Salina Street and West Onondaga Street.
“That’s really why we selected that location,” he says.
Besides the food-related tenants, the Salt City Market will also include 26 apartments and space for the Allyn Family Foundation.
“With our apartments, we’ve been really intentional to make sure that there’s affordable units that will always be affordable to lower-income individuals and we’ll also have market-rate apartments as well,” says Jacobs.
The main part of the building is the first floor and the food hall, which is intended to “create wealth-building opportunities primarily for entrepreneurs of color.”
The Salt City Market allows entrepreneurs to start in a small space, test out their business, build it, and decide if that’s what they want to do.
“That’s really the focus of the first floor and just creating a space where people can come together and eat and have a new space in Syracuse,” says Jacobs.
Project origin
The Salt City Market is based on a model built by the Neighborhood Development Center (NDC) located in Minneapolis.
The nonprofit NDC has helped start more than 400 businesses in the Twin Cities region. Many of those business launched in the Midtown Global Market, a large public market owned and managed by NDC.
NDC has “long had a connection to Syracuse” through its partnership with the Upstart program, which CenterState CEO operates. Through that existing relationship, the Allyn Family Foundation teamed up with CenterState CEO and NDC to develop a “similar concept” for the food hall that is under construction in Syracuse.
ITHACA, N.Y. — Welliver, a construction firm based in Montour Falls, announced that it was recently recognized for its work in the reconstruction and preservation of the Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) house on the campus of Cornell University. Historic Ithaca Inc. presented the 2020 Preservation Award in front of the fraternity house in Ithaca, Welliver
ITHACA, N.Y. — Welliver, a construction firm based in Montour Falls, announced that it was recently recognized for its work in the reconstruction and preservation of the Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) house on the campus of Cornell University.
Historic Ithaca Inc. presented the 2020 Preservation Award in front of the fraternity house in Ithaca, Welliver announced on Oct. 7.
Welliver, located at 250 North Genesee St. in Montour Falls, is a provider of construction services in New York state and northern Pennsylvania. Welliver describes itself as a fifth-generation, family-owned company, supported by a team of construction professionals, project managers, and subcontractors.
Historic Ithaca annually presents awards for restoration and preservation projects within Tompkins County. Nominations are reviewed by a panel of preservation professionals, and awards are made based on criteria such as the long-term preservation of the building; adherence to basic preservation principles; and the project’s impact on the surrounding community.
“Welliver has been constructing communities for about as long as the Delta Kappa Epsilon House has been around,” Anne Welliver-Hartsing, company president, said in a release. “We applaud Historic Ithaca for being champions in preserving buildings and maintaining their historical significance in the community. It’s an honor for Welliver to be part of this project and help to preserve the County’s history and heritage.”
The Delta Kappa Epsilon house was built in 1893 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. It was designed by William Henry Miller to serve as a fraternity house, with plans to originally house 16 students.
Two sides of the exterior were clad with marble from the St. Lawrence Marble Company of Gouverneur in northern New York.
Together with Lacey Thaler Reilly Wilson Architecture & Preservation, LLP of Albany, Welliver reconstructed the deteriorated granite stairway, entrance, and front porch of the DKE house. The reconstruction included removing and labeling all existing granite stones and stair treads and storing off site while all back-up walls and existing drainage were demolished and reconstructed. After pouring new backup walls, crews reset all stones and treads, and fabricated and installed new wood and bronze handrails.
“Leading the construction team and witnessing the revival of this historic structure was a very rewarding experience,” Jake Perno, project manager at Welliver, said. “Preserving historic buildings and structures like the Delta Kappa Epsilon house is what gives Ithaca its character and sense of community. Our skilled tradespeople are trusted experts in performing preservation work. We are proud to be recognized for this initiative.”
JOHNSON CITY, N.Y. — The former Gannett newspaper-printing plant in Johnson City was recently sold to the Binghamton University Foundation for $4.5 million. The 97,000-square-foot-building, situated on 10 acres at 10 Gannett Drive, was purchased by the foundation, the fundraising arm of the university. Rick Searles and Peter Finn of the real-estate firm, CBRE, exclusively
JOHNSON CITY, N.Y. — The former Gannett newspaper-printing plant in Johnson City was recently sold to the Binghamton University Foundation for $4.5 million.
The 97,000-square-foot-building, situated on 10 acres at 10 Gannett Drive, was purchased by the foundation, the fundraising arm of the university. Rick Searles and Peter Finn of the real-estate firm, CBRE, exclusively represented Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC in the transaction.
Binghamton University plans to use the structure as a library annex.
The building was constructed in 2006 and served as Gannett’s Central New York production facility until mid-2018, when the company shifted printing to Rochester. The structure has been vacant since then.
SYRACUSE — Syracuse Hancock International Airport recently unveiled the first part of a project that installed new high-tech exit portals in terminal B that should make it faster for passengers to leave the terminal. “What you see here is the first phase of it. Right now, the other side of the airport, the other exit
SYRACUSE — Syracuse Hancock International Airport recently unveiled the first part of a project that installed new high-tech exit portals in terminal B that should make it faster for passengers to leave the terminal.
“What you see here is the first phase of it. Right now, the other side of the airport, the other exit is being worked on. That will be completed before the Thanksgiving rush,” Jason Terreri, executive director of the Syracuse airport, noted in remarks during an Oct. 23 formal-opening ceremony.
The project cost about
$1.5 million, Terreri added.
Hancock purchased the exit lanes from Monroe, North Carolina–based Record-USA.
RJ Ortlieb Construction Co. served as the general contractor on the project, the Syracuse Regional Airport Authority (SRAA) tells CNYBJ. Patricia Electric Inc. of Syracuse was the electrical contractor.
Then, under the contract, Record USA handled its own installation and commissioning of the system, the SRAA said.
As for the purpose of the exit portals, the Syracuse airport addresses that question on its website in a section with “frequently asked questions” about exit portals.
“The exit portals allow passengers to exit the airport concourse safely and expeditiously, while preventing unauthorized individuals from entering the secure area of the airport. They also eliminate the need for law enforcement or other security personnel to monitor the exit lanes,” per the airport.
In the past, passengers had complained to airport officials that the prior exit tubes were too slow and they saw it as something the facility would have to fix.
“So, we had been planning on doing an exit-portal program replacement and then the pandemic hit, which dramatically reduced all of our traffic here at the airport and put a stop to most of … our projects,” Terreri said.
The airport had to fix its exit-lane technology “for a couple reasons,” the airport director noted. The facility needed to provide a “more efficient and a safe” option for people traveling out of the airport. And officials at the Syracuse airport wanted to make sure they provide the “best customer experience for everybody.”
In April, the federal government awarded Syracuse Hancock International Airport a $13 million grant through the CARES Act.
“[Without that], this project would not have been possible as well as just the normal continued day-to-day operations as our numbers have been down,” Terreri said.
Even as the pandemic continues, passenger traffic “is returning” to the Syracuse airport, he said. Each month, the facility is adding new flights and more capacity back into the market and the airport is “ready to welcome passengers back in.”
In 2019, the Syracuse airport had about 2.5 million passengers come through the facility, Terreri said. “That’s a three-decade record,” he noted.
The new exit portals have increased capacity at the airport, so as the traveling public returns and “we exceed the 2019 levels that we had, we will not have any delays of passengers coming out of the airport,” Terreri contended.
The new portals use sensors that detect passengers and open the doors automatically to allow them to exit the terminal. An alarm will sound if anyone tries to enter from the unsecured part of the airport or stops and turns around during the exit process.
The exit portals have “often been a conversation piece,” Jo Anne Gagliano, chair of the SRAA board of directors, said in her remarks.
“Now, we have a way to be secure and also provide convenience for people to move through” the airport more freely and efficiently, she said. “We are extremely appreciative … of the CARES Act that allowed this project to take place as it was planned this year,” Gagliano added.
SYRACUSE — Menard Group USA says it has hired Nathan McLean as a regional sales engineer for the upstate New York region. McLean is based in the Syracuse area. The company is still pursuing office space locally, Diana Walsh, marketing coordinator for Menard Group USA, tells CNYBJ in an email. Menard Group USA is headquartered
SYRACUSE — Menard Group USA says it has hired Nathan McLean as a regional sales engineer for the upstate New York region.
McLean is based in the Syracuse area. The company is still pursuing office space locally, Diana Walsh, marketing coordinator for Menard Group USA, tells CNYBJ in an email.
Menard Group USA is headquartered in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, in the Pittsburgh area.
The company has been working in the upstate New York region “for years” with several field personnel from the area, Walsh notes.
McLean, a professional engineer, is responsible for business development, estimating, and sales on both public and private projects throughout the upstate New York region.
“We are excited to have Nathan join our team and look forward to doing more work in upstate New York,” Miranda Slomkowski, regional sales manager in Menard’s Pittsburgh office, said in a statement.
Slomkowski is also a native of the Finger Lakes region and was “actively looking” for a local sales engineer to further build this market for Menard Group, before eventually hiring McLean, Walsh said.
Prior to Menard Group, McLean spent 15 years as a geotechnical consultant working on a variety of transportation and building projects throughout the eastern portion of the U.S.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from Clarkson University and a master’s degree in civil engineering, focusing on geotechnical engineering from Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont.
“While I look forward to this exciting opportunity, I am proud of the honor I have had serving as SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s interim president, working
The North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters (NASRCC) on Oct. 15 announced the appointment of James Mason, local 277 council representative, and Jomo Akono, local 276 council representative in the Buffalo area, to the executive board. Local 277 has offices in Syracuse, Utica, Binghamton, and Horseheads, per its website. The North Atlantic States Regional
The North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters (NASRCC) on Oct. 15 announced the appointment of James Mason, local 277 council representative, and Jomo Akono, local 276 council representative in the Buffalo area, to the executive board.
Local 277 has offices in Syracuse, Utica, Binghamton, and Horseheads, per its website.
The North Atlantic States Regional Council represents more than 28,000 people employed by residential and commercial general contractors and carpentry subcontractors in the region, per its Oct. 15 news release.
About Mason
Mason holds many positions within the carpenters union, including Central New York team lead, president of local 277, delegate to the NASRCC, trustee and financial committee member on the labor management fund, and trustee to the annuity fund.
Mason began his career as an apprentice for Diment Construction Co. of Oswego, earning the “Golden Hammer” designation when he graduated from his apprenticeship and leaving as a superintendent. He then went on to work for the engineering firm O’Brien & Gear for seven years as the sole superintendent on the Onondaga Lake cleanup project, where he built water treatment plants and installed collection systems. Mason was also part of the emergency communications restoration team at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
In addition to his work with the carpenters, Mason is a facilitator for the workforce-development committee for the Interstate 81 project in Syracuse, as well as a committee member on the City of Syracuse Residency Workforce Committee. He also sits on the OCM BOCES curriculum advisory committee for Onondaga-Cortland-Madison Board of Cooperative Educational Services (OCM BOCES) as well as the curriculum advisory committee for the Center for Instruction, Technology & Innovation (CITI BOCES) for Oswego County in Mexico.
Mason is a third-generation carpenter, a husband, and a father of five boys, two of whom are planning to follow in his footsteps to pursue a career in carpentry.
“As council representative for Central New York, Jim Mason demonstrates what it means to lead by example, expanding opportunities for others and showing up for the community,” Bill Banfield, assistant executive secretary-treasurer of NASRCC, said. “Jim exemplifies the values that drive our organization and we are pleased to welcome him to the executive board. We look forward to working with Jim to strengthen our organization and to empower the next generation of our workforce.”
About Akono
Akono is a council representative for NASRCC in Western New York. He has played an integral role in outreach efforts for the organization in that part of the state, “especially in the Buffalo community.”
He leads efforts to diversify local 276, to represent local demographics, and to increase the number of women in the trade through special pre-apprenticeship initiatives, such as the Sisters in the Brotherhood program.
Akono has established community relationships by working with organizations such as Juneteenth and the Urban League, to bring visibility to community members about the career opportunities that are provided throughout the organization.
As a second-generation carpenter who grew up in the city of Buffalo, the opportunity for Akono to become a union carpenter “changed his life and now he is giving back to the community and helping others to educate them about a possible life-changing career opportunity.”
In addition, Akono has a local, weekly community radio show called “Access to A-Free-Ka,” per the release.
“As Council Representative for Western New York, Jomo Akono embodies the future of the labor movement and the building trades. Over the years, he has taken on greater leadership roles within the organization and the community and we are pleased to welcome him to the Executive Board. Through his hard work and his commitment to the community, Jomo represents the best of the new generation of union leadership,” said Banfield.
About NASRCC
NASRCC says work performed by carpenters includes wood framing, concrete, interior metal framing and drywall, ceilings, window installation, flooring, doors and hardware, finish/trim, mill work and furniture installation, pile driving, marine construction, and diving.
The union “prides itself on offering the most comprehensive apprenticeship and life-long skills upgrade training to members at 18 locations,” per the release. Curriculum is developed by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters with industry experts and often shared with vocational-training programs.
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